AISD to lose $731,000 with possible 5 percent sequestration cuts

The Abilene Independent School District’s board of trustees heard Monday night the district could lose $731,186 — a 5 percent cut in federal funds — as a result of the government’s sequestration.

The potential across-the-board federal spending cuts would not start until the 2013-14 school year, which begins in July.

With a 5 percent cut, the district’s Title I program would be reduced by a total of $225,489. Ten of the district’s 15 elementary schools are Title I schools, which the federal government defines as having 75 percent of its student population qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches.

Factoring a 5 percent cut, Head Start would lose $122,427 and Early Head Start would lose $104,101. Cheryl Cunningham, director of AISD’s Early Childhood program, said the cuts, which are anticipated, would mean that Head Start would serve 80 fewer preschool children and that the Early Head Start cuts would result in 24 fewer infants and toddlers served.

Cunningham and Cathy Ashby, AISD’s associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, each said she had received letters that the possible cut would be only 5 percent instead of the feared 10 percent. However, Superintendent Heath Burns said during Monday’s noon media briefing that the district was planning for cuts of about 8-10 percent.

“It’s sobering news, but I know all of us Americans are ready to tighten our belt on fighting the national debt and getting that under control,” Ashby told the board at the conclusion of her sequestration report.

Also at the regular meeting at One AISD Center, the board:

Approved job order contracts for separate construction projects — one for minor districtwide roofing repairs with Lydick Hooks Roofing of Abilene and another for replacing about 70 heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units at Clack Middle for $521,900 with Batjer & Associates, an average of $7,455 for each unit. In December, the board fixed nine HVAC units at Clack for $95,790, an average of $10,643 per unit.

Discussed the status of Texas’ waiver request on the federal accountability law of No Child Left Behind. So far, Ashby said 47 states have filed waivers and 34, including Washington, D.C., have been approved. Only California’s waiver request was been denied. Montana, Nebraska and Vermont are the only states not requesting waivers. Ashby said she thought Texas would receive an answer by the end of the school year on whether the federal government would accept its request.

The primary reason for the request, Burns said, stems from the federal and state accountability systems frequently causing school districts to be “low performing in one system and exemplary in another system.”